Manitoban artists bring Junos home for contemporary Indigenous artist and blues album of the year
Singers Sebastian Gaskin and Big Dave McLean among Saturday night winners
Manitoba's homegrown music talent shined Juno gold at the annual award ceremony landing two awards on Saturday.
The Juno hardware was handed out during a gala in Vancouver, where prizes in more than 40 categories were awarded ahead of Sunday's televised ceremony.
Sebastian Gaskin, a musician from Tataskweyak Cree Nation now based in Toronto, won contemporary Indigenous artist of the year with his song Brown Man.
"This means the world to me," Gaskin said on Saturday after receiving the award.
The record that landed the singer-songwriter's first Juno is one of 11 tracks part of his debut album Lovechild, released earlier this year.
Gaskin, who received his very first Juno nomination this year, performed the closing act of the night with a stirring rendition of Medicine.
WATCH | Manitoba's Sebastian Gaskin performs at the 2025 Juno Awards Gala:
Ghost, another of his tracks, was also nominated among the titles of producer and songwriter Hill Kourkoutis in the recording engineer of the year category.
Big Dave McLean, a Saskatchewan-born and Winnipeg-based artist, won blues album of the year with his 14-track album This Old Life, released last summer.
The Order of Canada recipient has been nominated for multiple Juno awards through his decades-long career of telling stories through the slide on his guitar and gravelly voice.
LISTEN | Legendary musician Big Dave McLean reflects on 50 years of singing the blues:
Manitoba artists garnered nominations in other categories this year. That includes singer-songwriter Loreena McKennitt nominated for traditional roots album of the year, Boy Golden in the contemporary roots album of the year and Jocelyn Gould in jazz album of the year solo.
The Juno Awards continue on Sunday night.
With files from The Canadian Press